Festival Clothing for Men – How to Create the Look

So you're planning to spend the summer attending as many festivals as you can? Britain's biggest, the city-sized Glastonbury Festival, is having a fallow year, a year off, but there's plenty more on the horizon. It's time to experience the best bands in the world, the best fun, the most excitement. It's time to exercise your freedom and express yourself in all sorts of ways, and that involves looking the part.

How, as a bloke who usually wears dark, subtle colours, do you achieve that excellent free, easy, relaxed and colourful festival look? Here's some help. This time around the theme is patchwork, and we've made sure to choose garments with pockets, always important when you're living out of a tent, spending day after day wandering around in a field, and want to keep your hands free.

How to create the festival look with super-cool patchwork

You could say to hell with the weather and wear whatever you like. But let's face it, this is the UK and our weather is famously unpredictable. Unless the forecast faithfully promises nothing but sun, sun and more sun, you need layers... just in case.

When you layer your clothing you trap air in between the layers, which warms up beautifully to keep you cosy. Start off with a thin layer and finish off with a thick layer and you're golden. Make sure the top layers are easy to unzip or unbutton so you can let the air flow through and it's easy to cool back down if you need to. We have the makings of layers. Here's what we recommend.

Underneath – A plain or gig T

Start off with a cotton T on top and you can't go far wrong. The natural fibre feels cool to wear and creates the ideal under-layer for festival comfort.   

Layer two – A cool Medieval style stonewash shirt

Our Medieval style stonewash shirt is made from heavy 100% cotton and the loose fit means it's easy to sling on over a T. You can wear the tie neck open or closed to cool down or stay snug. It looks great either tucked in or loose, sleeves down or rolled up.  Stay safe with a stonewashed black-grey or go brighter with leaf green or petrol blue.

Layer three – A colourful men's patchwork waistcoat

Our bright, cheerful and very cool men's patchwork waistcoat makes the ideal third layer. Unbutton it to let the air through if you like.  It also has a couple of little pockets, useful for small essentials.  

Layer four – A men's patchwork fleece lined jacket

With a zip up the front, our men's patchwork fleece lined hoodie is incredibly practical. No having to take it off and put it on again over your head, just unzip and you're cooler again. The hood is a treat – pull it up and you're incredibly snug. And you have two more pockets to keep your stuff safe in.

On the bottom - Patchwork cargo trousers  

Our rugged, colourful 100% cotton men's patchwork cargo trousers are lightweight and cool while sturdy enough to take the punishment of a full-on festival and all it entails. The pockets at the side are handy for stashing vital bits and bobs and the patchwork itself is seriously funky. Our top tip – wear leggings, long johns or even light shorts underneath to stay extra warm.

And your footwear?

If it's going to be hot and sunny, you don't want people standing on your bare feet or worse, dancing on them! That's why plenty of people take just one sturdy pair of footwear to festivals, often a chunky pair of boots or trainers. But it's also nice, we think, to take a pair of flip-flops so you can give your feet some fresh air when you get back to your tent.

Grab a hat

Last but not least, grab yourself a hat. It's best to get a hat that works in all weathers, sunshine and rain. A hat with a brim is good because it lets you see the stage better when the sun's really bright, and waterproof fabric is best because in this country, your festival hat will probably need to cope with rain as well as sunshine.

Have an epic summer of music and love!

Whether you're into house music, blues, rock, indie, soul, funk, disco, country and western, thrash, metal or jazz, here's wishing you a festival season to remember. With a bit of luck we'll see you at some of them, on our stall, selling our lovely clothing to cool festival-goers like you.